This invention relates to an apparatus for suspending a drainage receptacle. More particularly, it relates to an apparatus for suspending a receptacle into which body fluids from a patient may be drained.
It is often necessary in a hospital to provide a drainage receptacle or bag in a convenient relation to a patient, so that body fluids can be drained from the patient into the receptacle. Such body fluids may include ones resulting from surgery, as well as urinary discharges. Because it is preferable to place the drainage bag below the patient for proper gravity flow, the most convenient place for hanging the bag is on the patient's bed; more particularly on the rail of the bed frame.
A known drainage bag includes tubing inserted in an inlet into which the patient's fluid is drained, a collecting portion, an outlet for removing the drained fluid from the bag, and a flow controller on the outlet, such as clamp. This type of drainage bag may also include components for measuring the amount of fluid drained, adding medicines or diagnostic reagents to the drained fluid, preventing flow of the drained fluid back to the patient, and withdrawing some of the drained fluid without opening the bag to the environment. Finally, such a bag also includes a hanger by which it is suspended from the patient's bed.
As is customary with hospital care, the patient, the patient's bed, and the bag are routinely manipulated for performing various tasks necessary to care for the patient. To accomplish these tasks, it is necessary that during these manipulations the hanger be constructed for keeping the bag in the desired orientation with respect to the ground. Generally, it is preferred that the bag hang in a vertical orientation to permit accurate measurement of its fluid content and, for example, avoid fluid backflow to the patient and that it hang in a horizontal orientation, where both sides of the bag are in the same horizontal plane and it is not bowed in or out. Second, the hanger should be capable of supporting the bag when it is filled with drained fluid. Further, it is preferable that the hanger be useful on both round and square bed rails and be easily affixable to a drainage bag, rather than being manufactured integrally with the bag or sealed thereto. In this last respect, in the attachment by the manufacturer of a handle to a drainage bag wherein the bag is found to be defective, if the handle is not an integral part of the bag it can be removed and placed on another bag, thereby saving in manufacturing costs.
Several hangers for suspending drainage bags are known in the prior art. One example of such a hanger is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,027,842 (Mittleman). This hanger does not have support by which it attaches to a drainage bag, but rather the bag has such a support integrally molded therein, which is disadvantageous for the reason specified above. U.S. Pat. No. 3,529,598 (Waldman) discloses a wire hanger for a drainage bag. It has been found that the incident of bag damage when a wire hanger is employed is greater than when a hanger of, for example, plastic is used. U.S. Pat. No. 3,650,272 (Erickson) discloses a "spring action" type hanger for suspending a drainage bag. Essentially, this hanger is Y-shaped with the branches of the Y being compressed to insert same into two pockets provided in the outermost, top portions of the bag. The spring action of the material of which the hanger is made is relied upon for holding the branches in the pockets and for suspending the bag. However, it has been found that when the bag is filled with drainage fluid, the fluid exerts the same compressing or downward force on the branches, which could either cause the uneven lowering of one side of the bag with respect to the other side of the bag or cause the bag to fall off the hanger, if the weight of the fluid is sufficient to snap one or both branches out of the pocket or pockets.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for suspending a drainage bag wherein the handle of the apparatus is not integral, but easily assembled with the bag.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a suspending apparatus which is useful on round or square bed rails or bed rails of various dimensions that are commonly found in hospitals.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a suspending apparatus which will not permit the bag to accidentally fall off the apparatus or cause damage to the bag.
Finally, it is an important object of the present invention to provide a suspending apparatus which will maintain the bag in a vertical orientation with respect to the floor and which will maintain both sides of the bag in the same horizontal plane.